ˈwater-butt
A large open-headed cask set up on end to receive the rain-water from a roof.
| 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §448 Water-butt and stand. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Early Coaches, The water is ‘coming in’ in every area, the pipes have burst, the water-butts are running over. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxxii, A woman as round and big as our largest water-butt. 1873 Miss Thackeray Wks. (1891) I. 70 George jumped out of window on to the water-butt, to see what was the matter. |
b. A contemptuous epithet for a teetotaller.
| 1898 Daily News 4 May 6/6 Scoffing comrades couldn't call him a waterbutt or a milksop. |